Consumer Symposium

Consumerism and Market Economies Symposium

In March 2010, Fiji held its first ever symposium on consumer issues. The Symposium on Consumerism and market Economies was jointly hosted by the Consumer Council of Fiji, Fiji National University and the Fiji Commerce Commission. As Fiji and other small island states are increasingly embracing open market policies, lack of adequate consumer protection laws, inability of enforcement agencies to execute the laws or inability of consumers to highlight issues of market power abuse, anti-competitive behavior and other issues are growing challenges that are becoming ever more evident.

The objective of the Symposium was to highlight these issues, explore some of the weaknesses in the laws, the operation of consumer and trading institutions, and to identify resources and strategies that can be used by traders and retailers, as well as consider policy options for consumer advocates, government and regulators.

The Council had invited two prominent international consumer experts to speak at the Symposium. Head of Consumer International Kuala Lumpur Dato’ Indrani Thuraisingham spoke on “Price Control and Monitoring in Developing Countries; A Consumer Perspective” and President of Federation of Malaysia Consumers Association (FOMCA) Datuk Marimuthu Nadason spoke on “Importance of Standards”.

The Symposium coincided with the 50th anniversary celebrations of the Consumers International (CI), the global federation of consumer movement. Read more>>